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Announcing our 2017 Honorary Doctorate and Emily Award Recipients

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By Selina Rajani

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Recipients will receive their honours at the 2017 Convocation Ceremony to be held May 5 at the Chan Centre for Performing Arts.

Honorary Doctorates will be bestowed upon visual artist and educator Hock E Aye Vi Heap of Birds; poet and cultural writer Lisa Robertson; and business leader and philanthropist Peeter Wesik. This year's Emily Award will be presented to 2011 alumnus Pat Christie. All recipients will receive their honours at the 2017 Convocation Ceremony to be held May 5, 2017 at the Chan Centre for Performing Arts.

"Emily Carr University of Art + Design is delighted to recognize these exceptional members of our community, who have contributed to arts and culture through their leadership, creativity and philanthropic endeavours."

Dr. Ron Burnett, ECU President and Vice-Chancellor

Each year the Honorary Doctorate Degree Program celebrates and recognizes the commitment, dedication, and service of individuals who are distinguished by their significant contributions and sustained creative and philanthropic achievements in their areas of expertise. The annual Emily Award Program recognizes the outstanding achievements by members of the alumni community whose creative pursuits in the arts, media and design have brought honour to the University.

Past honorary degree recipients include: Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, Eric Metcalfe, Lorna Brown, Catriona Jeffries, Janice Kerbel, Jon Stovell, Dan Graham, Douglas Coupland, Kate Fletcher, Jake Kerr, Jessica Stockholder, Michael Snow, Gordon A. Smith, Wendy Tilby, Susan A. Point, Bob Rennie, Stan Douglas, Sarah McLachlan, Atom Egoyan, Sally Potter, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Peter Doig, William Gibson, Mark Lewis, Michael Audain, Janet Cardiff, Jim Hart, Rodney Graham and Bruce Mau. Past Emily Award recipients include: Andrew Dadson, Naomi Singer, Etienne Zack, Liz Magor, Elizabeth Zvonar, Sonny Assu, Jason DaSilva, Brian Jungen, Daina Augaitis and Simon Chang.

For over four decades, Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds has created visual works that deliver critiques on colonization, modernity, identity and power. A member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, he received a BFA from the University of Kansas, and an MFA from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Heap of Birds boasts an extensive exhibition record, including the Venice Biennale, and his works are held in the collections of major museums throughout North America including the Whitney, the Smithsonian, the MET, British Museum, and the Library of Congress.

A Professor of Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma, Heap of Birds has served as a visiting lecturer and professor at numerous universities around the world, including Rhode Island School of Design and Yale University. His artistic creations and efforts as an advocate for indigenous communities worldwide are focused first upon social justice and then the personal freedom to live within the tribal circle as an expressive individual.


Poet and cultural writer Lisa Robertson's practice overlaps with philosophy, visual art, architecture, design and fashion. In her poems, prose, and essays she has had a profound influence on Vancouver's art community where she is also known by her former pen name, The Office for Soft Architecture. Robertson has received numerous awards and honours, including a fellowship from Cambridge University, the ReLit Poetry Award, the bpNichol Chapbook Award, and the PIP Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative Poetry. Her book, Debbie: An Epic, was nominated for a Governor General's Award.

Previous teaching engagements include the Beaux Arts in Bordeaux, Piet Zwart Institute, American University of Paris, California College of the Arts, the University of Cambridge, and Princeton University. Robertson has been poet-in-residence at UC Berkeley, University of Chicago, and Simon Fraser University.

With over 30 years in the real estate industry, Peeter Wesik is widely recognized as one of the most influential leaders in BC. As President of Wesgroup Properties, he sets the vision for the company: one that embraces flexibility, diversity, sustainability and social responsibility. A much-lauded speaker on the topics of real estate, sustainable urbanism and homeownership, Wesik was named one of the 20 most influential people in residential construction by BC Homes Magazine in co-operation with the Canadian Home Builders' Association of BC (2011).

A longstanding friend of arts and culture organizations, Wesik is passionate about the impact of the arts on the community. Through his family foundation, he has made significant gifts to the Vancouver Art Gallery, Audain Art Museum, National Gallery of Canada, Chor Leoni, Ballet BC, Arts Umbrella, and Emily Carr University. Wesik is currently a Director of the Royal BC Museum and St. George's School.

Industrial designer, entrepreneur, and social innovator, Pat Christie believes that imagination and play are fundamental to a healthy process of creation and problem-solving. After graduating from Emily Carr University in 2011, he founded DalyCo., a business established around thoughtful human-centred design with a focus on regional wood products and development. In 2013, he co-founded Yew Woodshop with fellow alumni, to share equipment, space and knowledge resources. SPACE soon followed, a creative hub and showroom where designers sell products through a low margin model and participate in hosted activities that encourage the development and exposure of new products and ideas.

Christie's activities have focused on increasing the connectivity between the academic and professional realms, spearheading multiple initiatives to create links between organizations and individuals from disparate fields. Together, his entrepreneurial ventures form a living prototype of the innovative, collaborative, values-based working group that the local design and manufacturing community can bring together.